1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and an information processing method. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system including an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer and a printing device such as a printer, and to devices, a method, and a control program constituting the system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Owing to a recent progress in digitalization of information and diffusion of network and mobile systems, users can access a large amount of information at one time and portability of the information has dramatically improved. This trend will inevitably accelerate.
Hitherto, various methods for preventing leakage of information have been widely used. In one of them, for example, an access right is set in confidential information or a storage server storing the information, so as to limit users who can access the confidential information.
In recent years, however, leakage of information has often been caused by a user who is permitted to access the confidential information. Therefore, leakage of information cannot be sufficiently prevented by only setting an access right.
Also, countermeasures against leakage of information have been taken in a network printing system.
An example of the countermeasures is a method of setting print permission information in a document to be printed or print data and referring to the print permission information before performing printing (e.g., see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-252784).
Another example is a method of storing print data in a print server such that the print data can be reprinted, and storing the print data as a print log by adding a time stamp by obtaining a job name, a client name, and a user name, and by generating bitmap data based on the print data (e.g., see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-149371).
Still another example is a method of obtaining a print log also on the printer side and storing the print log in a server (e.g., see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-330677).
Yet another example is a method in which a spooler in a print server transmits intermediate data to be printed to a printer driver and to a database of a print log, or in which the printer driver receives the intermediate data to be printed from the spooler and transmits a PDL (page description language) to a printer and also transmits the intermediate data to the database for a print log (e.g., see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-118243).
However, in these known arts, detailed settings or management of a print log cannot be done in an information processing apparatus provided with a printer driver.